Where are we at w/ Solomon and Gibbs?

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Throbbing Member

Any intel on if and when they will get an answer from the NCAA? Honestly, I think getting them might be a +1 in the win column, especially Solomon. Replacing the entire d line could use a veteran body.

Well-Known Member

Yes, and he lawyered up quickly. Supposedly said Ohio St's coaching change (Urban to Day) was the hardship.

Of all the recent transfers, Martell's really has the greatest potential to change the sport and create a quasi-free agency system. The others (Shea Patterson last year, Fields, etc.) all had some extenuating circumstance that could plausibly be claimed. Martell's didn't really.

Throbbing Member

Yes, and he lawyered up quickly. Supposedly said Ohio St's coaching change (Urban to Day) was the hardship.

Of all the recent transfers, Martell's really has the greatest potential to change the sport and create a quasi-free agency system. The others (Shea Patterson last year, Fields, etc.) all had some extenuating circumstance that could plausibly be claimed. Martell's didn't really.

Which is all the more puzzling why players with seemingly legitimate reasons are being denied. I’m not saying our guys do, but once Martelli was allowed to transfer without penalty, the genie was kind of out of the bottle. Now the NCAA seems to be trying to stuff it back in after OSU (and Miami) got their man.

Well-Known Member

Which is all the more puzzling why players with seemingly legitimate reasons are being denied. I’m not saying our guys do, but once Martelli was allowed to transfer without penalty, the genie was kind of out of the bottle. Now the NCAA seems to be trying to stuff it back in after OSU (and Miami) got their man.

Yes, which is why Solomon/Gibbs (and presumably any other non-potential star without a really obvious reason) are going to get denied. After letting a string of high-profile players go through, they are going to deny the non-household names to make it look like the rule still exists.

Unless there's information we don't know, Solomon and Gibbs would have even weaker cases than Martell. Martell's reasoning was that the coach he committed to was no longer there, and the new staff had no interest in keeping him (which OSU did nothing to refute). Solomon and Gibbs aren't leaving a school with a head coaching change and with no other unique circumstances that anybody is aware of.

If Martell is considered a hardship situation, then in order to be consistent, then the NCAA is going to have to let hundreds of kids transfer if they wish every year without penalty. After any head coaching change, all of the guys on that roster can transfer. But we all know they don't do that.

Everybody knows that wasn't the real reason with Fields though. If Fromm was graduating/going to the draft, Fields goes precisely nowhere. It's a very politically incorrect thing to say, especially in today's political environment, but I don't think he wanted out of there because he was called a racial slur during a game. His sister is still going there on a softball scholarship and in his statement after getting the transfer approved Fields himself basically says he has no problem with UGA and that his overall experience "was fully consistent with UGA's commitment to diversity and inclusion."

Martell had no other reason to fall back on, so he basically said straight up why he wanted to transfer, and the NCAA permitted it.